


A Wife's Concern

by Leni



Series: The Kindness of Strangers [10]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Cursed Belle, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 04:50:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8651680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: Lily Gold would never stop worrying over her husband.





	

**Author's Note:**

> L0vetakesnoprisoners prompted: 'winter'.

Lily entered their bedroom carefully, trying not to cringe at the sight of her husband in pain. He had never appreciated her concerns over his old injury, and since he usually took care of not aggravating it, Lily had learned to keep quiet about it.

But his face was pale now, the heating pad he'd placed over his right ankle obviously not helping at all.

Lily curled her fists in impotent dismay. "What the hell possessed you, Albert?"

"It's not that bad," he lied. 

At least he didn't tell her to leave it alone. Neither did he invent some task for her so she'd leave the room. With slow steps, half disbelieving that he wasn't insisting that she save her protective instincts for their children, Lily approached him. "What if you'd slipped in the ice?"

"I wasn't skating, darling. I was just showing Samuel how to do it. From well outside the frozen lake."

Lily shook her head. He always took into careful consideration the limits his leg imposed on him, but this wasn't the first time in the last few weeks that he'd forgotten there were limits at all. "You overdid it."

He arched an eyebrow, laughing despite the circumstances. "Oh, believe me. I noticed."

"Please promise me you won't do it again," she pleaded, half-expecting her husband to huff and remind her that he was a grown man.

She blinked in surprise when he took her hand into a tender grasp. 

"I'm sorry I worried you, dearest," he said.

That, she noticed, was not a promise. But she hadn't been Mrs. Gold for this long without learning how to steer a conversation in the direction she wished. Now it remained to be seen whether Albert's good mood would extend to allowing himself to be steered.

"You'll worry me more if you keep doing this," she told him sincerely. "I don't want to wonder every day whether you're taking good care of yourself. I can't take another call from the hospital telling me you've been wounded, Albert."

"That was an accident."

"That was an awful girl pushing you when everyone knows your balance is compromised," Belle hissed, still fuming at the thought of Ashley Boyd walking free. "But that is nothing if _you_ aren't minding your own health."

"Love...."

"You're not invincible, Albert," she told him, lacing their fingers together in the hopes the gesture would soften her words. She breathed in ill-concealed relief when he squeezed her hand, the knowledge that he wasn't annoyed at her concern giving her the push to tell him everything. "And Sammy will love you even if you can't play with him outside."

Her husband's shoulders tightened. "I know that," he said.

To Lily's ears it sounded like he was trying to convince himself. "He thinks you're the best, dear." Especially in the last couple of months, where Albert had gone out of his way to spend time with their boys. The baby barely noticed, and clung to his mother when he did, but Lily had been glad to see her oldest flourish under his father's attention. "We all do," she added, leaning her head on his arm, their hands still intertwined.

That made him give one of those rare wide smiles of his.

His mood softened, Lily ventured to ask, "I could massage your leg, you know. That might help."

He looked at her for a long moment, then hesitatingly nodded. "That would be nice."

Shock at his easy acquiescence made Lily stare for a second, but then she smiled, glad to at last have a chance to help her husband. "Thank you," she told him.

Albert chuckled. "Believe me, sweetheart. That's my line."

 

The End  
25/11/16


End file.
